The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 29, 2003
Filed:
Jun. 27, 2000
Qinglin Ma, Bothell, WA (US);
John C. Lazenby, Fall City, WA (US);
Lin Xin Yao, Bellevue, WA (US);
Bruce A. McDermott, Bellevue, WA (US);
David A. Petersen, Fall City, WA (US);
Siemens Medical Solutions USA, Inc., Iselin, NJ (US);
Abstract
A system for controlling the point spread function of an ultrasound signal transmitted into a patient. In accordance with one embodiment of the invention, only a selected number of the transducer elements transmit a transmit pulse. The elements which do not transmit the pulse are selected in accordance with an apodization probability density function. In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, each transducer element transmits a variable portion of a transmit pulse in order to control the acoustic power of the signal transmitted from each element.